The Purpose of the Body

(February
16, 1967)

It is only the awareness of the body
that makes love seem limited. For the body IS a limit on love. The
belief in limited love was its origin, and it was MADE to limit the
UNlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical; for it was made to
limit YOU. Can you who see yourselves WITHIN a body, know yourself AS AN
IDEA? Everything you recognize you identify by EXTERNALS, something
OUTSIDE itself. You cannot even think of GOD without a body, or some
form you think you recognize. The body cannot KNOW. And while you limit
your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the grandeur that
surrounds you.

God cannot come into a body, nor can
you join Him there. Limits on love will ALWAYS seem to shut Him out, and
to keep you APART from Him. The body is a tiny fence around a little
part of a glorious and completely limitless idea. It draws a circle,
infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered
from the whole, proclaiming that, within it, is YOUR Kingdom, where God
can enter not. Within this kingdom the ego rules, and cruelly. And, to
defend this little speck of dust, it bids you fight against the
universe.

This fragment of your mind is such a
tiny part of it, that, could you but appreciate the whole, you would see
instantly that it is like the smallest sunbeam is to the sun. Or like
the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean. In its amazing
arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it IS the sun; this almost
imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean. Think how alone and
frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding
itself apart, against the universe. The sun becomes the sunbeam's
"enemy," which would devour it. And the ocean terrifies the little
ripple, and "wants" to swallow it.

Yet neither sun nor ocean is even
aware of all this strange and meaningless activity. They merely
continue, unaware that they are feared and hated by a tiny segment of
themselves. Even that segment is not LOST to them, for it could not
survive APART from them. And what IT thinks it is in no way changes its
total dependence on them FOR ITS BEING. Its whole existence still
remains IN THEM. Without the sun, the sunbeam WOULD be gone; the ripple
WITHOUT the ocean IS inconceivable.

Such is the strange position in
which those in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be. Each body seems
to house a SEPARATE mind, a DISCONNECTED thought, living alone and in no
way joined to the Thought by which it was created. Each tiny fragment
seems to be self-contained, needing each other for SOME things, but by
no means TOTALLY depended on their One Creator for EVERYTHING. And
needing the whole to give them ANY meaning, for by themselves, they DO
mean nothing. Nor HAVE they any life apart, and by themselves.

Yet, like the sun and ocean, your
Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards ITSELF as you. It
is not missing; it could not EXIST if it were separate, nor would the
whole BE whole without it. It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an
IDEA of separation from the rest. Nor does a fence surround it,
preventing it from JOINING with the rest, and keeping it apart from its
Creator. This little aspect is NO DIFFERENT from the whole, being
continuous with it, and at one with it. It leads no separate life,
because its life IS in the Oneness in which its being was created.

Do not accept this little,
fenced-off aspect as your Self. The sun and ocean are as nothing, beside
what YOU are. The sunbeam sparkles only in the sunlight, and the ripple
dances as it rests upon the ocean. Yet in neither sun nor ocean is the
power that rests in you. Would you remain WITHIN your tiny kingdom, a
sorry king, a bitter ruler of all he surveys, who looks on nothing, but
who would still die to DEFEND it? This little self is NOT your kingdom.
Arched high above it, and surrounding it, with love, is the glorious
whole, which offers all its happiness and deep content to EVERY part.

The little aspect that you think you
set apart is no exception. Love knows no bodies, and reaches to
everything created like itself. Its total lack of limit IS its meaning.
It is COMPLETELY impartial in its giving, encompassing ONLY to preserve
and KEEP COMPLETE what it would give. In your tiny kingdom you have so
little! Should it not, then, be there that you would call on love to
enter? Look at the desert, dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless,
that makes up your little kingdom. And realize the life and joy that
love would bring to it, from where IT comes, and where it would return
WITH you.

The Thought of God surrounds your
little kingdom, waiting at the barrier you built, to come in and shine
upon the barren ground. See how life springs up everywhere! The desert
becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who
lost their way, and wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge,
prepared by love for them, where once a desert was. And every one you
welcome will bring love with him, from Heaven for you. They enter one by
one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they had come,
alone.

The love they BROUGHT with them will
STAY with them, as it will stay with YOU. And, under its beneficence,
your little garden will expand, and reach out to everyone who thirsts
for living water, but has grown too weary to go on alone. Go out and
FIND them, for they bring your Self with them. And lead them gently to
your quiet garden, and receive their blessing there. So will it grow,
and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely little kingdoms locked
away from love, and leaving YOU outside. And you will RECOGNIZE
yourself, and see your little garden gently transformed into the Kingdom
of Heaven, with all the love of its Creator shining upon it.

The holy instant is your invitation
to love, to enter into your bleak and joyless kingdom, and transform it
into a garden of peace and welcome. Love's answer is inevitable. It
will come, because you came WITHOUT the body, and interposed no barriers
which would INTERFERE with its glad coming. In the holy instant, you ask
of love only what it offers everyone, neither less nor more. Asking for
EVERYTHING, you will RECEIVE it. And your shining Self will lift the
tiny aspect that you tried to hide from Heaven, straight into Heaven. No
part of love calls on the whole in vain. No son of God remains OUTSIDE
His Fatherhood.

Be sure of this; love has entered
your special relationship, and entered fully, at your weak request. You
do NOT recognize that love has come, because you have not yet let go of
ALL the barriers you hold against EACH OTHER. And you will NOT be able
to give love welcome separately. You could no more know God alone, than
He knows YOU without your brother. But, TOGETHER, you could no more be
UNAWARE of love, than love could know you not, or fail to recognize
ITSELF in you.

You
have reached the end of an ancient journey not realizing yet that it is
over. You are still worn and tired, and the desert's dust still seems
to cloud your eyes, and keep you sightless. Yet He Whom you welcomed has
come to you, and would welcome YOU. He has waited long to give you this.
Receive it now of Him, for He would have you KNOW Him. Only a little
wall of dust still stands between you. Blow on it lightly and with happy
laughter, and it will fall away. And walk into the garden love has
prepared for BOTH of you.